Tangled Webs We Weave
"Tangled Webs We Weave" is the 994th episode of Casualty and the 33rd episode of the 30th series. It was preceded by "A Clear Conscience" and followed by "Hello, I Must Be Going". The episode was directed by Steve Hughes and written by Mark Catley. It featured the first appearance of staff nurse David Hide. It was Zoe's first centric episode of series 30, and also her final centric episode overall. Synopsis Zoe wakes up and realises that she made some drunken calls the night before. Upon arriving for work, Max plays her a voicemail message she left where she told him that she wanted to kiss him, although this just made her angry. Meanwhile, new band 5 staff nurse David Hide arrives for his first shift in the department. He begins treating a recovered alcoholic with Dylan, named Anne. Despite his attempts to comfort her, he finds it hard to converse with her and the rest of the staff alike. Elsewhere in Holby, a local man named Blend discovers that a plastic container on his counter has sandwiches in to his surprise. He calls his friend to say he's got his sandwiches. Meanwhile, Anne goes for a cigarette outside the ED in the car park behind a large truck which is there whilst construction work is taking place to the gardens. It soon transpires that Blend's friend, Numar, is the construction worker driving the truck. Numar is shocked to discover a large spider inside his lunchbox, as his lunchbox and the container with Blend's pet spider had got mixed up. In shock, he accidentally sends the truck reversing and a large block of rock on the back pins Anne against the wall, trapping her. Mercedes, Vince and Connor arrive at the ED after having been beaten up by Shelle. They plan to leave Holby for good after, and Vince accompanies her into the ED and leaves Connor in the car. However, Shelle turns up shortly after and convinces Connor to go with her back to her house. Whilst Zoe treats Mercedes, Max goes back to check on Connor with Vince upon finding out he's been left alone with Shelle on the loose. When they get back to the car, they discover Connor gone and drive off to Shelle's house together to find him. Meanwhile, David stays by Anne's side whilst Jacob and Connie assess her injuries and Lily tends to Numar's spider bite. Blend arrives at the scene of the incident as he realises that the spider must have been in the container Numar had. However, he has an asthma attack shortly after and is also admitted. Whilst being treated, Numar takes his anger out on Blend as he suspects he did it on purpose. Meanwhile Lily does some research into the type of spider whilst it's successfully in the container again. However, Blend reveals that he intended to breed spiders and it soon transpires that there's another one somewhere. Zoe continues to treat Mercedes and although she gets up to leave and go after Connor, Zoe tells her that she's pregnant. Max and Vince arrive at Shelle's house, but Vince is chased away by her henchman shortly after. She lets Max in but as he puts his hand in his pocket, the other spider jumps out, having got inside his jacket. In the ensuing chaos, Connor climbs up a ladder upstairs which Shelle had previously forbidden him from doing. He falls down a hole in the floor into a secret room where Shelle is growing cannibis, and injures his leg badly. Max goes after him and climbs into the room and calls for Zoe's assistance whilst Shelle leaves the house. She gives him instructions over the phone to make a splint by tying both of Connor's legs together. Anne tells David to contact her son, and at reception Noel is ultimately left to make the phonecall after David fails to complete it. David goes back to her and her son arrives soon after. They are then able to get her out, but she dies shortly after in the ED. Despite the overall failure to save the patient, Dylan and Connie are both impressed by his good medical skills. Zoe arrives at the house and manages to break through the dividing wall to get to Max and Connor. They manage to get Connor back to the ED, where Mercedes takes some wise words from Max and decides to throw her drugs away and focus on her family. Meanwhile, Mark turns up outside the ED and is threatened by Iain who says if he doesn't leave Rita alone, he will get help from his army friends to make sure it stops. Rita steps out to find them, and Mark tells her he was just there to apologise and walks off. Despite Rita's earlier instructions to Iain not to confront Mark, it seems to have resolved the issues either way, but Iain is left wondering whether he still wants to be with her. Max waits outside Connor's recovery room, and shares a kiss with Zoe. Production 's final centric episode before her departure the following episode.]] This episode featured the first appearance of staff nurse David Hide, portrayed by Jason Durr. Durr's casting was announced towards the end of February 2016 along with Jaye Griffiths who made her first appearance in May. It was revealed over Twitter that Durr began filming in early January. He was the second new main character to join the show in 2016, and was a replacement for Ben "Lofty" Chiltern who departed in March. Reception The episode received mixed reception among fans, some praising Jason Durr's portrayal of the new staff nurse David Hide. However, some saw the incident involving the lorry outside the ED to be far fetched. Alison Graham wrote in her review for the Radio Times "Tonight's lesson is "Don’t eat a sandwich directly behind a lorry loaded with concrete." Even for Casualty, it's a bizarre chain of circumstances that leads an ailing drunk (played by Cathy Tyson) to be pinned to a wall by said vehicle." She went on to criticise the ongoing storyline involving Mercedes Christie, played by Hannah Spearritt, saying "By this point, truly, it’s hard to care."